List of places of worship in the Borough of Guildford
[5] Guildford is the second largest local government district in the county of Surrey and the most populous: there were approximately 134,400 residents in 2007[6] and 137,183 at the time of the United Kingdom Census 2011.
The rest of the borough is largely rural, characterised by Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty associated with the North Downs interspersed with ancient, affluent villages.
The ancient county town of Surrey is situated at the point where the River Wey cuts through the North Downs.
It was an ancient borough, the site of a Dominican friary (demolished) and a castle (extant), and a royal charter and a market were first recorded in the 13th century.
[9] The town expanded over time, especially from the 19th century when the railways arrived, and the neighbouring village of Stoke (with its 14th-century church, St John the Evangelist's) became part of the urban area.
[13] A second church in Burpham was one of several inexpensive buildings designed for Anglican congregations in Surrey by David Evelyn Nye in the 1960s.
[14] Guildford town is surrounded by ancient villages, both in the countryside and on the main road and rail routes into it.
[16] Southeast of here, but more isolated and very popular with tourists,[17] the cluster of villages around the River Tillingbourne at the west end of the Vale of Holmesdale supports a range of Anglican churches.
[19] Holmbury St Mary and Peaslake both have 19th-century churches as well: formerly chapels of ease to Shere, the architecturally impressive buildings date from 1879 and 1889 respectively.
[17] Nearby, a 19th-century barn in the even more isolated hamlet of Farley Green was converted into a church after being presented to the parish of Albury.
Elsewhere in the borough, medieval churches (restored to various degrees in the Victorian era) survive in the villages of Compton, Effingham, Ockham, Pirbright, Puttenham, Ripley, Seale, Send, Shalford, Wanborough, Wisley and Worplesdon.
[16] Roman Catholic worship was outlawed for many years until the end of the 18th century, although some owners of country estates covertly kept the faith.
[23] Protestant Nonconformism was strong in the area in the 19th century, and many chapels associated with Nonconformist denominations survive—although not all remain in religious use.
[30] Westborough[31] and Bellfields in Guildford also have United Reformed congregations, the latter as part of St Peter's Shared Church which is also used by Anglicans.
The present Grace Church Guildford met at the old chapel (converted from a barn in the 1680s) until 1953, when it moved to Chertsey Street, and is its direct successor.
[40] Effingham and West Horsley are still open, and a new Methodist church was built in 1955 to serve a new housing estate in Merrow,[41] but the others have closed; the buildings in Ash Vale, Ripley and Shalford survive in alternative uses.
Good quality stone has never been plentiful in Surrey, but the area around Guildford yielded sarsens and puddingstone:[43] these were sometimes used in the construction of churches, as at Worplesdon[44] and Ripley[45] respectively.
[53] "Irregular veins" of carrstone also occur locally in the Lower Greensand,[46] and it can be seen (albeit obscured by rendering) at Wisley church.
[54] The "curious local building practice" of galleting—placing pieces of carrstone or flint into the mortar surrounding blocks of masonry—is in evidence at Pirbright.
The prevalence of this hard stone around the North Downs made it "the obvious material to use" for medieval churchbuilders in Surrey.
[59] A tin tabernacle survives in use at nearby Peasmarsh in Shalford parish, and back in Chilworth another (now the village hall) served as the original Anglican church.
[61] Another conversion of a secular building took place in 1985, when the congregation of the Normandy United Reformed Church bought the village's redundant telephone exchange to replace their small chapel.
[29] The Anglican/United Reformed shared church of St Peter's on the Bellfields estate in Guildford is also part of the Wessex Synod.
